


Miscue

by Drive-By Drabbles (DriveByDrabbles)



Category: Emma Approved
Genre: Drabble, Episode 69, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 20:28:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2123580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DriveByDrabbles/pseuds/Drive-By%20Drabbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex was coming back to Emma Approved intent on having one final discussion with Emma that he expected would lead to the dissolution of their business partnership.  Emma's latest on-camera video forces him to abandon that plan and consider a new one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Miscue

**Author's Note:**

> This drabble takes place during episode 69 from the point of view that Alex overheard Emma and the quick cut seen in the video was just the Pemberley Digital app doing its automated ‘cut out the pauses’ editing.
> 
> Cross-posted at http://drivebydrabbles.tumblr.com/post/94514742806/ea-fic-miscue

Alex always hit his cues.

He was never late for an appointment. He always paid his taxes on time. (Usually early.)  He was punctual for every date — what few of them there were.

Today, he returned to the offices of Emma Approved to speak with his (erstwhile?) business partner. He didn’t have an appointment, but he knew Emma’s coffee and lunch schedules and picked a time she was almost certainly going to be there.

He let himself in quietly and paused at his office.  He knew from Harriet’s phone calls, emails, and tweets that Maddy had been helping out so he expected things to be moved around.  It looked weird to him. All his finance binders were missing from their customary places.  His chair was askew, not tucked in like he always did when he left his desk.

Emma had been in here.

He spent a great deal of time out in the wilderness, camping and rock climbing alone Joshua Tree National Park.  He had loved it since he was a kid. The vastness of nature always put his personal life into perspective and reset his life.  He desperately needed that lately after what had happened.  And he was thinking he needed to part ways with Emma and find his own path elsewhere.

So it was he was approached Emma’s office. The door was open as it usually was and he slowed his pace, like he usually did.  It was habit now to pause for a few moments outside her door to quickly gauge her mood. She was talking to the camera as she had been for the last year, but he heard the quaver in her voice.  Like she had been crying.

If Alex’s heart could groan, it would have. He always hated seeing her anguished.  Emma just wasn’t Emma if she wasn’t confident and energetic.

“It’s like I haven’t noticed how the people around me really feel. Not to mention how I feel about people around me.  I am in—  I realized that I— I thought it was just— but it’s not.  I am in love with Alex Knightley.”

He stepped in front of the door, but Emma was facing away from him, still talking to the camera.  He was rehearsing the conversation he was going to have with Emma.  He toyed with his fingers, twisting them in indecision.

Two seconds later, right on cue, Emma’s words sunk in.

Courage fled and with it so did Alex, back out of the office.  He didn’t bother waiting for the elevator; he hurried down the stairs and into his car. It wasn’t until the doors were locked and he was clutching the steering wheel with both hands that he let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

This was nowhere part of the plan.

_What do I do now?_


End file.
